Need You Now
by Ackleholic89
Summary: A one shot based on the song of the same title by Lady Antebellum. *Disclaimer* I don't own anything.


~*~*~*~*~*Sonny*~*~*~*~*~

Earlier, I found a box I never unpacked, even though me and my two kids had moved in well over a year ago. The box was full of old photo albums. Most were from my days in Wisconsin, a few were of my "So Random" years and several were of me and Chad and our family-back when we _were_ a family. We had our oldest, our son Ryland, young. I was only 19, but I got married at 18. We decided to wait awhile before having anymore kids, so five years later we had our daughter, Sara. We were both completely happy with one of each. We were a perfect family-then something happened. I don't know what exactly. We were fighting all the time, if not about one thing, it was about another. Until finally the straw the broke the camel's back, somehow in the middle of all the fighting (probably after we made up one night) I found out I was pregnant again. When I told Chad he wasn't as excited as he had been for the other two, granted neither was I, but still. The next week he was offered a movie deal that would cause him to be gone for a year and a half. I told him if he left, I would leave him. The next day he was gone. Throughout the next few weeks, I was under a lot of stress -emotionally and physically - and I lost the baby. Luckily, I had my two children and Tawni was extremely helpful. I let Chad know in a note sent with divorce papers. The divorce was finalized last month.

As I sat there I couldn't help but cry. Even though Chad was (and still is) a jerk, I loved him. I still love him. I wonder if he ever thinks about us. I haven't heard from him since he left; besides seeing the signed divorce papers, I wouldn't know that he was still alive. The truth is though, I miss him.

"Mommy?" I heard my daughter's tiny voice.

"Sara, honey. What are you still doing up?" I asked her as I wiped my eyes.

"Why are you crying?" She asked, avoiding my question.

"Because..." I debated on how much I should tell an eight year-old. "Because I miss Daddy." I finally told her.

"Me too." She said as she sat down in my lap. She rested her head on my shoulder and I reached for my phone. I scrolled through the contacts and landed on Chad's name. I was debating on calling him when Sara suddenly sat up, tears in her eyes. "Mommy, I don't feel good." She got up and put her hand over her mouth and ran to the bathroom.

I groaned, tossed my phone aside, and slowly stood up, glancing at the clock. 1:15. It was going to be a long night.

~*~*~*~*~*Chad*~*~*~*~*~

"Give me another." I said robotically. I saw the bartender, Joe, shake his head slightly before pouring me another shot of whiskey. I normally would have said something, but I honestly didn't care. Plus, I'd known Joe for awhile. The place used to be a club. You only had to be 18 to get in, so Sonny and I would come here a lot before she got pregnant with Ryland. This was where we got engaged. I rented out the club for the night, and got decorators to fix the place up. Roses were everywhere. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but in retrospect, maybe a club wasn't a great place to get engaged after all. Obviously it leads to divorce.

I downed the shot and glanced at the door, hoping, wishing, praying Sonny would walk in. The door didn't even move enough to give me a false sense of hope. I sighed.

"Do you want to talk about something?" Joe asked me.

I took a deep breath. "She called me."

"Who?"

"Sonny."

"Okay..."He said, obviously confused.

"Well, I haven't talked to her in a year."

"Really?"

"I was off shooting a movie...and we got a divorce."

"No! You and Sonny?" I nodded. "Wow. You guys acted like you were so great."

"Well you know, Joe, that's how we make our livings-acting. "

"Touche."

"Can I get another?" I asked, gesturing with the glass.

"So what did she call you about?" He asked as he poured another.

"I don't know. I think it may have been an accident."

If I thought Joe looked confused before, he was beyond confused now. I tried to clarify, "She called me around 1:15 this morning I was asleep and didn't get the call. I had a voicemail when I woke up. I listened to it. It was 5 minutes of her talking to Sara. Apparently she was sick. Sonny was talking about getting her some ginger ale and a cool, wet washcloth for her forehead. I had forgotten how much I missed her until I heard her voice." I quickly downed the shot Joe had poured for me after playing with the glass, watching the liquid swirl around in it.

"So, what's wrong?"

"Should I call her back? Even though it seems like an accident?"

Joe shrugged. "I can't tell you what to do."

"Well, will you pour me another while I decide?"

"That was your fourth one."

"So?" He'd never had a problem with me drinking before. Suddenly he extended his hand. I looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.

"You know the rules, Chad. Hand 'em over."

I sighed and reached in to my pocket to pull my keys out and drop them into his hand. He took them and put them behind the bar where only he could get them, then poured me another shot. I'm not sure how many more shots I had before I finally decided I'd had enough. I saw Joe give me a worried look as I stumbled out of the bar. Once outside, I pulled out my phone and searched for her number. When I finally reached it, I realized I still didn't know if I wanted to call her back or not.

~*~*~*~*~*Sonny*~*~*~*~*~

I was woken up out of a sound sleep to the phone ringing. It was only 11:30 and normally I would still be awake, but after being up all night with Sara I had crashed early. I was finally able to focus my eyes on the number that was calling. It surprised me. "Hello? Yeah... okay...alright... I'll be right there... It's fine... okay... bye."

I sat up and tried to figure out my emotions. I wasn't sure if I was angry that Chad was so drunk that I had to pick him up or if I was excited and nervous about seeing him. I determined I was a little bit of both. I was wearing a t-shirt and pajama pants, and I decided that since I shouldn't have to leave the car, that it would be okay to leave in that. I walked out of my room and opened the door to Sara's room. Her light was off and she was sound asleep. I closed her door and opened Ryland's door. His light was on and he was on the computer.

"What are you still doing up?" I asked, causing Ryland to nearly jump out of his skin. "You have school tomorrow."

"I... uhh.." Ryland stuttered.

"Just figured since I was asleep you could stay up late and I'd never know?" The look on his face told me I was right. "Well, for once I'm glad you didn't follow the rules."

Now Ryland was just confused. He raised his eyebrow in the exact manner that Chad does.

"Your dad... got drunk, and he needs somebody to pick him up. So I'm going. I need you to listen out for Sara. I think the virus has passed and she should be out for the night, but call me if you need me."

"So... I'm not in trouble?"

"You got lucky this time." He breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'll be right back."

"Okay. Bye, Mom."

I walked out of his room and slipped on some shoes on the way out the door

I got into my car and drove for about 15 minutes before I saw him stumbling down a sidewalk. I pulled up beside him.

"I'm fine. Please go away." He said without looking up.

"You're fine? Really? That's not what I heard."

He stopped and looked at me. "Sonny?"

"Get in the car, Chad."

He stared for about 15 seconds before saying ,"No. I'm okay.", turning and continuing to walk. I began to creep along side him.

"Chad." He acted like he didn't heard me. "Chad!" Again he ignored me. "Chad!!"

"What?!" He stopped suddenly and yelled back.

"The house is back that way." I said and motioned the opposite direction we were going. Chad looked back and forth, confusion written all over his face.

"I know." He finally said. "I'm taking the scenic route."

"Chad Dylan Cooper. Get in the car right now." I said sternly as I threw the car into park.

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Good! He yelled as he forcefully opened the door.

"Good!"

"So, we're good?" I asked him as he sat down in the car.

"Oh, we're so good." He said then slammed the door shut.

We sat there awkwardly for about 30 seconds before Chad broke the silence by saying, "So, how'd you know where to find me?"

"Joe called."

_Flashback_

_"Hello?"_

_"Hey, is this Sonny?"_

_"Yeah..."_

_"Hey this is Joe... Chad was in here earlier, and I'm a little worried about him."_

_"Okay..."_

_"He uh... got a little drunk, so I took his keys and he started walking home."_

_"Alright..."_

_"In the opposite direction."_

_"I'll be right there."_

_"Look he told me about the divorce and normally I wouldn't call but-"_

_"It's fine."_

_"Well, look don't be a stranger. Come see me soon."_

_"Okay."_

_"Bye."_

_"Bye."_

"You didn't have to come." He told me.

"I know."

"So why did you?" Because I still love you. Why couldn't I say that?

"Because you were my friend before you were my husband." Well.. that was a decent enough answer. "And you're the father of my children." Okay... should've just stopped talking, Sonny. Try to fix it. "And..." And? And?! "You can be an ass sometimes." What? Sonny, what are you doing? "But I've missed you and I just really... really wanted to see you." Whew... glad that's over.

Chad's head which had gotten lower and lower, suddenly popped up. He looked into my eyes and I quickly looked down at my hands.

"I _was_ an ass... wasn't I?"

"Was?" We both laughed quietly.

"So... did you mean to call me this morning?"

"What? No." When would I have tried to call him... oh wait..."Oh! Actually... I was thinking about calling you. I had your name selected and something happened and I thought I hit the 'back' button... but apparently I hit 'call' instead."

"Oh." It looked as if a burden was lifted. That phone call must have been driving him crazy.

"Wait! If you knew I called, why didn't you just call me back?"

"That's actually how I ended up here... I've been arguing with myself all day to decide whether or not to call you back, because it seemed like an accident based on the really long voicemail of you and Sara talking about ginger ale and wet washcloths. And after..." He began to count on his fingers but after starting over twice, on the third time, he gave up and said "A lot... of shots of whiskey... I finally made a decision."

"You decided you weren't going to call me?"

"No... I decided I was going to call you tomorrow. I figured that if Sara was sick like it sounded like she was, then you probably had a long day and I wasn't going to call you this late because you needed your sleep."

"Well... what would you have said when you called?"

"I would have said... I'm sorry. I should never had gone to film this stupid movie. It kind of sucks anyway. I'm sorry that work took precedence over family. I promised you 14 years ago in our vows that I would never let it get in the way. And I did, and I'm sorry. And I wanted to call you for so long-"

That's where I interrupted him. "If you wanted to call me, why didn't you?"

"Because I didn't think you wanted me to."

"Of course I wanted you to! I wanted you to chase me. Not let me walk away."

"Oh... well I wish I would have known _that_."

I couldn't help it. I just started laughing and so did Chad. We weren't even sure why were laughing. We laughed for several minutes before we finally started to catch our breaths.

"Sonny, I love you."

"I love you too, Chad."

Suddenly he lips forcefully landed on mine. It felt so nice to kiss him again. I had missed it a lot-more than I realized.

He pulled away. "Sonny Munroe Cooper- wait... your last name is still Cooper right?"

"I never changed it?"

"Okay, Sonny Munroe Cooper... will you marry me... again?"

I nodded. "I never should have signed those divorce papers in the first place." I kissed him again. Things were started to get heated when the car suddenly stopped running. We both pulled away quickly. I tried to turn the key, but the car wouldn't start. "We're out of gas."

"The nearest gas station isn't for several miles... that's too far to push. And I'm not going to be much help."

"I'll call a tow truck." After I got off of the phone I turned to Chad. "They said they'd be about 45 minutes."

"45 minutes, huh?" He wiggled his eyebrows.

I giggled and kissed him again.


End file.
